Ricardo Antonio Mayorga Perez (born October 3, 1973) is a Nicaraguan professional boxer and former mixed martial artist. In boxing he is a former two-weight world champion, having held the unified WBA (Super), WBC, Ring magazine, and linealwelterweight titles in 2003, and the WBC super welterweight title from 2005 to 2006. Mayorga first became well known to boxing fans upon being featured on the cover of The Ring's December 2003 issue, entitled "The craziest man in the sport: Mayorga lights up boxing." He has since maintained this infamous reputation with his relentless trash-talk in the build-up to most of his fights, as well as his smoking and drinking habits outside the ring.

Mayorga decided to make a comeback as a boxer and won two fights in 2014, after over three-and-a-half years since losing to Miguel Cotto. He was then scheduled to rematch Shane Mosley in a fight on pay-per-view at The Forum located in Inglewood, California on August 29, 2015.[1] Mosley would again defeat Mayorga, this time by KO in the sixth round.

On May 15, 2010 Mayorga was scheduled to make his professional MMA debut against UFC veteran Din Thomas on the Shine Fights: Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas card.[2] Don King filed for an injunction the week of the fight to prevent him from participating, claiming Mayorga had an exclusive contract with Don King Promotions (DKP).

Shine Fights stated that Mayorga's contract with DKP was for boxing, and as such did not apply to mixed martial arts. Judge Marc Gold granted the injunction just several hours before the fight.[3] Later on the same day, Shine Fights officials conceded defeat in the matter and Mayorga was pulled off the card.[4]

Following his retirement from boxing, Mayorga decided to properly embark on a professional MMA career and faced Wesley Tiffer on May 3, 2013. He was kept on the ground but able to survive round 1. Tiffer continued to grapple with him on the ground until Mayorga landed a controversial and illegal knee to Tiffer's spine, that of which ultimately heard Tiffer screaming after the blow. Mayorga won via TKO after Tiffer didn't answer the bell for round 3. The Nicaraguan Mixed Martial Arts Commission declared the fight a No Contest for the illegal knee a week later on May 10, 2013 and also suspended Mayorga for 3 months for being 20 pounds over the contracted weight limit of 165-lbs.[5]

In the aftermath of his loss to the aforementioned Cotto, Mayorga went on record to state that he doesn't entirely dismiss the possibility of a comeback. Sources close to him predicted that he would return to the sport to face Antonio Margarito in a bout that would've supposedly been dubbed: "When villains collide", with the winner earning themselves one final shot at being able to resurrect their career and the loser permanently retiring from boxing – a fight that would've entertained fans not only at a press conference, but also inside the ring as well.